Tag Archives: Moms Clean Air Force

I’ve got a daughter who loves the snow with all her heart. When we get a good snowfall, she runs outside and literally immerses herself in the snow, asks to be buried in it the way one gets buried in the sand on the beach. She puts her face directly in the snow, happy as a puppy, and eats it fresh from the sky. When the snow first falls I let her partake of it, though quietly I worry about what is in the snow. I know it’s far from pure because, lovely as it is to watch fall, it carries with it what is in the air.

It turns out Maryland has some of the worst air on the east coast and Baltimore more so. Continue reading →

I wasn’t able to listen to the First Lady’s speech the night she delivered it at the Democratic National Convention. My 8-year-old daughter Claire is a night owl who loves to be read to sleep, so we lay in bed together reading Katie Kazoo Switcheroo as Michelle Obama spoke from her heart about the man she married and the country she so loves.

The next day I watched the speech on YouTube. Toward the end, Michelle spoke about who she was first and foremost amidst the many roles in her life. It was the only noticeable moment where tears filled her eyes.

“And I say all of this tonight not just as First Lady and not just as a wife. You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‘mom-in-chief.’ My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.”

As I listened to her, my eyes filled with tears, knowing that I, too, am first and foremost a mom-in-chief to a daughter I love more than words could ever convey. I was moved to tears by that extraordinary love and a future my daughter and all children will be inheriting – a future that I’m not feeling very good about.

Granted the future has always and will always carry with it burdens and responsibilities that the next generation must take on when they have grown. But when it comes to poisoning water and air, the adults in this world right now have a responsibility to stop that poisoning. And right now fracking is at the top of the culprit list.